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Can you Remember GATOR Bait?
When I was younger, a lot younger, there was a product that
hit the shelves at some of the local bait shops, called, Gator Bait. This
was a synthetic fish attractant-bait. I can remember this product so well,
because I am not the kind of person that strays too far from the traditional
methods of fishing or is easily persuaded to purchase what I call gimmick
stuff. When I first saw this on the shelf, I thought this was just another
way to part a fisherman from his money.
One of my fishing buddies, Dave, had not been so skeptical and
had purchased a bottle of this magic stuff, bait that needed to refrigeration,
no aeration and could be stored in your tackle box, awaiting the time to be
placed on the hook and do its job.
I remember the first day that I was introduced to this magic
bait, because we only brought a small amount of dead shrimp and a cast
net to catch more. On the first cast with a new net it came untied at the horn
and sank to the bottom in 25 feet of water. After this we almost went back to
the house to call it quits but decided to go any way.
We only fished about an hour before we were out of
shrimp. As I used the last shrimp, I made the comment "we need to head back as
we are out of bait". Dave said he had some Gator bait, lets try it. I
being the skeptic that I was, said in a sarcastic tone, "I bet we will catch a
bunch on that". Dave hooked a piece on the hook and sent it down. Before
it made it all of the way to the bottom, I saw the pole thump, Dave set the hook
and up came a fish. This fish was a little larger than most that we had caught
so far. Dave removed the fish from the hook and sent the same piece of
bait back down. The same thing happened as before, the bait made it almost to
the bottom and thump, Dave had another fish. Now I wanted some Gator
Bait. I put a piece on my hook and down it went. The same happened to me as
with Dave, thump and a fish came up. This action went on for what seemed
to be all afternoon before we thought we had more than we wanted to
clean. My skepticism was now gone and I was a believer in Gator
Bait.
Gator Bait has long been just a memory, as it is no
longer on the market but the same person that developed Gator Bait, Dr. William
Carr has come up with something that works better, Fish Bites.
Here is the experience that I, Vic Tison, George Strait of the
Mayport Princes and James Gergely of B & M Bait and
tackle have had with this new and wonderful, fish catching product in the
past few days.
The first time out with this new product "Fish Bites", was
aboard the Mayport Princess, deep sea party boat, out of Mayport, Florida.
When we got to the first spot, I made two dropper loops
on my line, tied on a # 4 Daichii circle wide hook on each of those a put
on a piece of Fish Bites on each hook. I sent this rig down and before it
made contact with the bottom, I was getting bites. When the rig hit bottom, I
made two turns of the handle to take the slack up and I had a fish on. After a
short battle, up came a two pound Beeliner (Vermillion Snapper). I removed him
and sent the rig back down. This time, I cranked up two , two pound beeliners.
Off they went and back down again. Another beeliner made it's way back up and
into the box. I have now caught four fish and have been using the same bait that
I started with. This action went on for some time before I had to put
another bait on the hook.
By now James Gergely, who was standing next to me was looking
at my bait, like he wished he had some. So the nice guy that I am, I gave him a
piece. He put it on his hook and down it went, before it hit bottom he was
hooked up. He made the typical grunting sounds that most fisherman make when
cranking on a nice fish from the depths. After a few seconds or so, up came
another nice beeliner, a fat two pounder. James sent the same bait back
down and up he came with another fish. All the while I continued to send
my Fish Bites down, let the rig hit bottom, feel the bite and up with more fat
beeliners. It wasn't long before I had my limit of these tasty snappers
and had to give some away to other anglers that DID NOT have any Fish
Bites.
The next trip was with Vic Tison to the Shands Bridge, in
search of croakers and yellow mouth trout.
We put in at Governors Creek, made the short run to the
bridge, found 27 feet of water on the south side and put our anchor down.
We were fishing this day with light spinning and bait casters with Daiichi # 4
circle wide hooks and the bait of choice was Fish Bites. We put out four rods
each with Fish Bites, even though we had shrimp as a backup. We were there just
minutes before the bite started. The first fish was a very nice 3 pound
yellow mouth trout, then a croaker, then another trout and another trout.
We had been there less than ten minutes, had four nice fix in the box and no
bait in the water. All of the poles were in the bottom of the boat,
waiting to be sent back out. We sent out all four rods and all still
had the original piece of Fish Bites attached to the hooks. This was great,
we didn't have to re-bait.
We waited a long time before the next bite, less than 30
seconds and we had three more fish on. We were filming a show and Vic was
manning the camera, so I had the duty of getting these fish in. All
three made it to the boat and as fast as I could, sent the rigs back
out. Once again, I was able to send out the rigs without adding any additional
bait. This is getting better by the minute, now we had seven fish in the
box and we were still using the original bait from the first drop.
The day was hot and still and by now, I had worked up a good
sweat. As I leaned over to open the drink box for a cool drink of water, Vic
barked out, "fish on". I hurriedly sucked down a bottle of water and now he was
hollering, they all have fish on now. I grabbed the first rod and to the
boat came another croaker, then a trout, a croaker and another trout. As I
landed each fish, I threw the fish in the bottom of the boat, still attached to
the hook as I was afraid that one might get away if I took the time to unhook
him and put him in the box. After I got all of the fish in the box and all
of the rigs back out, still with the original bait, I went to the front of the
boat before the frenzy started again. I acted like I was messing around
with the camera when the next bite took place and I told Vic, that it was his
turn in the hot seat. He did as I thought, went to the back and started
reeling them in. First a trout then three croakers. It seemed like you
would go about 30 seconds to about 2 minutes with no action then every rod had a
fish on. This was pretty neat.
We had now caught about 20 fish on the same four pieces of
Fish Bites that were originally placed on the hooks. This was great, we were
able to catch several fish on the same piece of bait.
We continued to have the same results with the numbers of fish
and we each were able to find different ways to make it to the front of the boat
so the other would have to go to the hot seat. This got to be almost comical
before the morning was over.
We fished for about three hours and totaled over 50 fish and
only had to re-bait about three or four times. The Fish Bites
stay on the hook almost as well as a piece of rubber tire
would.
We never even considered taking out our backup shrimp as the
Fish Bites worked better than shrimp ever could. Fish
Bites stays on the hook through several fish, you can use a small piece, thus
having more hook exposed for a better hook up and you do not need to keep it
alive or cold.
This new synthetic bait has made a believer of me and everyone
that was close enough to me to see what I was using. You can count on me having
some Fish Bites in all of my tackle bags and in my boat. This bait will not be
there only for backup, it will be the primary bait for a good number
species.
Fish Bites can be purchased in Jacksonville at Clapboard Creek
Fish Camp on Hecksher Dr, 757-1423 and B & M Bait and Tackle at the beach
249-3933 or you can go to www.fishbites.com to find a store near
you.
Local fishing action:
The trout are back. With the rain from the past week the trout
are back and in good numbers. They can be caught from the downtown docks to the
ICW and in several creeks.
The flounder are turned on and can be found in the same areas
as the trout.
Reds in the creeks are on one day and slow another. There are
plenty of them in the shallows on the low end of the tides. Try a very small
bait or a live small mullet. There are also good numbers of reds at the jetties,
if you know where to look for them.
There are so many croakers and yellow mouth trout around the
Shands Bridge, I wish I could take some of my charters there as they would all
have a full box of these tasty fish.
The offshore bottom fish action is slow at best on the close
in reefs. The reefs out a ways are still producing good numbers of snapper,
amberjacks, mangroves and beeliners.
The kings are thick on the close in reefs with some dolphin in
120 to 130 feet of water out of St. Augustine.
Barracudas are everywhere from the beach to the
ledge.
For charter information on my boat or yours please contact me
at 904 757 7550 or funfish@mediaone.net.
Good Fishing
Capt. Jim Hammond
This report brought to you by
 and 
Here is a picture of Capt. Jim Hammond with a very nice
stringer if beeliners caught on the Mayport Princess. The bait that I used was
Fish Bites, that's it. No cut bait or live
bait. 
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